Megliola: Reluctant praise for Alex Rodriguez

Sunday

Oh geez, do I have to? I mean say something nice, something flattering about, you know…HIM.

OK, here goes. Alex Rodriguez is really good at his new gig. He’s almost as good behind a microphone as he was behind an oncoming fastball that he belted out of the park for one of his 696 home runs.

Of course, how many of those left the park with the help of a banned substance or two will always be at the foot of A-Rod’s legacy. It made him a pariah, nowhere more so than in Boston where hating on him became a sport in itself.

He burst on the baseball scene at 19. His first hit came at Fenway Park, an infield single he beat out with his speed. He played in the big leagues for 22 years. Only a handful of young players arrived with so much potential. No one knew better than A-Rod how good he could be. So when he got caught in a web of lies and missteps regarding banned inducements, we wondered why, A-Rod, why? You were fast on the road to the Hall of Fame anyway.

Maybe you just needed to make sure.

When he signed with the Yankees A-Rod became one of those athletes made for a TMZ, tabloids kind of celebrity. Rich and handsome, controversial and haughty, boorish and charming, he was perfectly placed in the Big Apple.

We wondered what his baseball afterlife would be like, as he drifted away from the spotlight he craved. Now we know. He’s hardly drifted at all. A-Rod will still be going to the ballparks again, not in a Yankee uniform but wearing a $1,500 suit instead.

We’ll see him, and mostly we’ll hear him. A-Rod will be in the ESPN broadcast booth for Sunday Night Baseball.

Know what? He’s good at this analyzing business. He has a chance to be great at it. (I know, you shiver hearing “A-Rod and “Great” in the same sentence). Watching him prep for this big career jump – he was working at Fox during the post-season - showed viewers, even the haters if they’d be honest about it, that he was informed, articulate, anecdotal and just plain polished as an in-studio analyst for Fox..

Countless athletes, no matter the sport, have flopped, some historically, trying to make a post-career move to TV. A-Rod breaks the mold completely. Now he gets to expound in real-time game situations on the big ESPN stage. Ha. There was never a stage too big for A-Rod.

He could easily rise as the star of this reconfigured ESPN team. Gone is capable play-by-play guy Dan Shulman, replaced by the basically unknown Matt Vasgersian. Jessica Mendoza returns to the booth, but gone is Aaron Boone who took the high-profile and frequently firestorm job of Yankees manager.

So A-Rod replaces Boone. Both are despised in Boston, for different reasons. Must I explain?

It could get intriguing the first time the Yankees play on Sunday Night Baseball with A-Rod critiquing the inexperienced manager’s moves.

And for sure ESPN will be airing Sunday night Red Sox-Yankees games – you know, those things that commonly end after midnight? So A-Rod figures to be a regular visitor to Fenway Park this season. We’d recommend police protection.

He will arrive with his usual flair, in a limo, dressed to the nines, still trim at 42. His new gal/pal is Jennifer Lopez (yes, I dumped her again). If they show up together on Yawkey Way it’ll be like Oscar night on the red carpet.

Here’s a suggestion, ESPN. Bring J.Lo into the booth for one night and let her handle one half inning, the top of the 7th let’s say. OK, that may be stretching the traditional seventh-inning stretch a bit. She probably wouldn’t be very good. But who cares? She’s J.Lo. It’d be fun.

Now, here’s the power and the appeal of A-Rod who once signed a $250 million deal with the Rangers and later a $275 million pact with the Yankees. He gets to keep his Fox job in the post-season. He’ll be all over TV, including the night talk shows with guys named Jimmy and Jimmy.

So you wondered where life’s path would take A-Rod. Now we know. He’s back in the glare of the bright lights, smiling that $275 million smile, comfortable as can be.

The guy makes being A-Rod look easy.

Reach Lenny Megliola at lennymegs41@gmail.com. Follow on Twitter at lennymegs